The invention relates to a surgical appliance comprising a housing having at least one sealed cavity, and a drive unit arranged in the housing.
A surgical appliance of the kind described at the outset is known, for example, from DE 196 07 123 A1.
In the drill disclosed therein, provision is made for a battery to be inserted together with an electronic control unit of an electric motor of the drill into a receptacle provided therefor in the handle of the appliance and to be removed again for sterilization of the appliance. Sterilization of surgical appliances is necessary before they are used at a sterile operating site. However, sterilization at increased temperature, which is usually carried out in the form of a superheated steam treatment, may damage individual components of such appliances, especially electric parts. With the known drill, the battery and the electronic control unit can be protected against harmful sterilization influences, but there is still the problem that during cleaning of the appliances in a washing process with cleaning agent temperatures of above 90° C., sealed-off cavities are only completely tight in an ideal case and can only be permanently sealed to a limited extent.
Furthermore, surgical appliances with drive units always require passages, for example, for a drive shaft, and permanent and complete sealing of these makes high demands on the design and implementation of the sealing connections required therefor. Above all, these seals are also subjected to high mechanical stresses during sterilization as large pressure differences may then occur between inside and outside the sealed cavity. It has proven particularly disadvantageous that small amounts of steam or liquid can always penetrate in an undesired manner into the sealed cavity and can only be removed with difficulty. There is thus the danger that germs from the interior of the sealed cavity may get to a sterile operating site in the reverse direction.
The object of the present invention is, therefore, to improve a surgical appliance of the kind described at the outset such that the cavity can be sealed in a simple way, and the formation of germs can be reduced or these can be removed from the cavity in a simple way.